in bits and pieces
June 2008
Mansaram Ka Dhabba
Peerah, National High Way no. 1A
Jammu & Kashmir
I was standing straight when I took this photo.
Backdoor entry to Mansaram Ka Dhabba
The place is renowned for its Rajma Chawal that come doused in pure Desi Ghee – Kidney bean with rice doused in clarified butter.
Kidney bean from Jammu are quite popular all over India…thanks to the millions who visit pilgrim town of Katra every year to visit the cave of Vaishno Devi
“Tracing connection between mythology and science, Governor Lt. General (Retd) S K Sinha today said that the latter cannot totally ignore the former.
Inaugurating an international workshop on physics and analysis of hot and dense matter at University of Jammu this morning, the Governor while referring to mythological belief said that emergence of the Himalayas from the ocean. Scientists were today studying the Big Bang concept which led to the creation of the universe. They may find an element of commonality between their scientific findings and some mythological beliefs. He said that Homer’s Idiyad describing the Trojan War used to be dismissed as mythology and poetic fantasy till recent archaeological excavations have established the historicity of that war, which over centuries had got embellished with mythology.”
– from Daily Excelsior, Jammu, Feb 12, 2008
Governor (he was not yet ex) was inaugurating a workshop on ‘A Large Ion Collider Experiment’ (ALICE)’.
Indian teams are contributing to two of the experiment in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Experiments that aims to re- create conditions that existed immediately (in a billionth of a second sense) after the Big bang. These two experiments are CMS experiment and ALICE . Starting on 10 September 2008, it is the single biggest experiment conducted in the world since NASA’s mission to space.
The team from Jammu University worked for ALICE under Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre Kolkata.
Photon Multiplicity Detector (PMD) for the LHC to be used in ALICE was built by Indian experts and the team from Jammu contributed to its creation.
Back to the (ex) Governor. I think it would have been understandable had he been quoting Frijof Capra. It would have been a nice ruse to talk about Amarnath.
But, taking about Homer’s Iliad (Idiyad?) at a physics workshop! He sure was a curious fellow and it’s a funny world.
Anyway, here is a little funny something to see:
Google search results for Big Bang India
and Google search results for Big Bang Pakistan
Everytime the light goes off, people come out on the street to protest. They are protesting for land in Amarnath. On the phone I was told that Electricity meters of houses have been damaged by the protesters. I asked is the protesters are damaging the meters of their own house. In jest, I was informed: first they go out and destroy meter of others, and then they go home and destroy their own meter.
Only a few years ago, Jammu was a meter less town. Electricity – the city did have some time in between 8-10 hour power cuts, voltage – if you torched a live wire intentionally, on good days it could tickle you to go into a voluntary spasm and break a smile on your face. Every house was and still is run by giant privately owned transformers. Step up – Step down is a ritual to be performed every hour or so for 24 hours, everyday, every night, every month and every year.
This electricity was almost free. Then the local administration stringent on the subject of electricity meters. On my last visit to the city, June 2008, my uncle told me now the electricity almost never goes, except of course when its our vari . And even the hours of vari are now normal – only 2 to 3 hrs. I was there for more than two weeks and the light did go off unscheduled. I was told: Bad Luck!
Actually now that I remember, there were meters earlier also but only now they are being taken seriously.
I guess the city never took them meters kindly.
Now every time the light goes off, with nothing better to do, people go out protesting for land.
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Those who remember history, or those who remember Freedom at Midnight by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins, or better still, those who remember Salman Rushdie’s Shalimar the Clown, will of course remember that the the story of Kashmir problem starts in 1947 with the burning of Mahoora Power House and plunging of valley into darkness.
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I was told that the Gujjars are being asked to leave Jammu. Where will they go? They have always lived in Jammu. They are told: Go back to the Valley.
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Back at Jammu, my grandmother is worried. She is worried because there is a talk in that town:
All the trouble in city, all this violence over Amarnath issue, has its origin in Pandits of Kashmir. These Pandits carried their scourge with them to Jammu.
Somewhere hidden along with that brass Khos, pandit sneaked in the scourge.
My grandmother is worried that we would be thrown out of Jammu.
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Unrelated post:
Back to Kashmir, Pandit
28/10/2007
Jammu
I had gone to attend a dear cousin brother’s wedding. On the night of his yajnopavit (sacred thread) ceremony someone mentioned that in a nearby hall, hosting guests of some other wedding, there is an old lady dressed in traditional Kashmiri pandit costume.
I went to that hall along with a cousin sister and took these photographs using her camera. It felt odd as I went there uninvited. People, mostly woman, were sitting in the hall forming their own mini groups. The old lady was sitting in a corner all dressed. I walked up to her, said ‘namaskar‘ and gave her a hug – touching the feet of elders is not the protocol among pandits, at least not yet. I asked her if I could take some photos of her. For her age, the lady was surprisingly shape minded and cheerful. She was kind enough to let me take her photographs. No, in fact she was delighted.
I went back and showed the photographs around. Everyone was delighted. In the 90s this ‘sighting’ would have been nothing special, but in this millennium, it was almost a miracle. It got people taking about old days. I remember many times being told stories of grand old pandit ladies who, during kabali raid of 1947, asked their families to leave them behind on road as they didn’t want to slow down their families while they were fleeing from murdering horde of Muslim tribal people and Pakistani soldiers.
In 90s, people remembered old ladies who had never been out of kashmir and then suddenly ‘post-migration’ found themselves in Jummu. Many of them, traveling in local buses – ‘meta’dors‘ or ‘muk’bus‘, would often ask the conductor to drop them off to their home, but on being asked, would give their address as some place in kashmir. The conductor, invariably some dugur boy, dugur kot not yet out of his teens, would yell, “Mata’yee,” his voice getting drowned in film music blarring from a pair of speakers kept under the seat next to the door, “aa yammu hai!” Amused and laughing, to the rest of the passengers and to the rest of the world in general, he would ask, “Ku’dru aa gaye yara ay kashmiri!”
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The picture on left titled ‘A Panditani [Hindu] Kashmir’ was taken in 1900 by famous photographer Fred Bremner. Just like the lady in the photographs above, the woman in left photograph is wearing tarang (head dress), pheran (traditional kashmiri gown) and athoor/dejhoor(in the ears).
Read more about traditional Kashmir pandit dress at ikashmir
For more old photographs of Kashmir check this
August 16, 2007
A news missed.
Kashmiri Pandits Launch Political Party in Jammu & Kashmir
Found about it at Desicritics.org
Some background info. at Kashmiriat.org can be found about the people involved and in a way its political nature.
Kashmiri Pandits already have a lot of organizations that work to various ends and needs butI think a political party makes more sense, now. It’s almost a natural step for Kashmiri Pandits. After 17 years, Kashmiri Pandits too have become a political issue.
“We have launched a political party, the Jammu and Kashmir National Democratic Front, with the aim to fight for the honourable return and rehabilitation of Pandits in the valley and constitution of a development board for them in Jammu,”
AK Dewan, its acting coordinator told reporters . Also, according to news report
The constitution of a development board in Jammu for the community, its return to the valley, development of temple trusts and migrant camps, enhancement of relief and passage of bill dealing with their shrines are included in its agenda.
It’s going to be tough but it all seems natural given the present concern of Kashmiri Pandits. Thinking about past, planning for the present and hope for the future.
